Government today said that coal imports dropped by 27.16 per cent to 12.6 million tonnes (MT) last month from a year-ago period on the back of rise in domestic production.

Coal India had missed the production target in the last fiscal by 3 per cent recording an output of 494.23 MT. The target for the ongoing fiscal is 550 MT. (Reuters)

Government today said that coal imports dropped by 27.16 per cent to 12.6 million tonnes (MT) last month from a year-ago period on the back of rise in domestic production.

“With unprecedented increase in coal production by Coal India, import of coal comes down for third successive month,” Coal Secretary Anil Swarup tweeted.

“Coal imports down from 17.3 MT in Sept 14 to 12.6 MT in Sept 15. In value terms from Rs 8,598 crore to Rs 6,027 crore, a reduction of 30 per cent,” he said in another tweet.

Coal India which accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal production is targeting one billion tonnes of coal production by financial year 2020.

According to mjunction, an e-auction joint venture between Tata Steel and SAIL, coal imports were down in September due to low imports of non-coking coal by power utilities.

“Imports by power utilities in April-September were down nearly 7 per cent to 41 million tonnes this year from 44 million tonnes in the same period last year as they preferred buying domestic coal instead, which is easily available now,” Viresh Oberoi CEO and MD mjunction told PTI in an email reply.

“This has significantly affected overall imports even as import of other types of coal either remained flat or increased a bit,” he said.

Coal India had missed the production target in the last fiscal by 3 per cent recording an output of 494.23 MT. The target for the ongoing fiscal is 550 MT.